Eyjafjallajökull continues to Erupt in Iceland

But a Possible Phase Change in the Eruption May Be in Process

Image from NASA showing Ash Plume from Monday

The volcano that had brought air travel in Europe to nearly a complete stand still continues to erupt, today; however, there are signs that the volcano may be changing its phase of eruption from the current explosive and ash abundant one to one more of lava flows. Here is was the most recent update from the Icelandic Meteorological Office:

"At 04 o'clock this morning, seismic tremors indicated that lava flow might have begun in Eyjafjallajökull.

At 08:50 the ash cloud reached a height of 4 km, which is less than in recent days. This would suggest that water inflow at the crater is decreasing and that the ash producing phase of this eruption (see photos) is giving way to a phase of lava flow.

The Icelandic Coast Guard flew this morning (19 April) over the site and observed, at 10:30, magma splatters thrown 1.5 - 3 km into the air by explosions in the crater. No photos are available of this phenomenon at IMO yet.

Magma splatters have accumulated on the crater's rim. Splatters of magma have also fallen on the ice around the crater and this gives rise to steam plumes.

In spite of the ejected batches of liquid magma, no lava flow from the craters was detected. South of the eruptive site, the ash clouds reached 5-6 km height."

This was the view this morning at 0840 CDT from one of the webcams from near the volcano

There is other good news, too, related to the volcano. Air travel is beginning to resume with flights resuming in many European nations and again across the Atlantic to North America. Eurocontrol, the agency overseeing European air space, is predicting 14,000 flights to occur, today. That compares to a normal Tuesday of about 27,500 flights. They are also predicting that after today, more than 95,000 flights will have been cancelled since last Thursday, April 15.

The bad news is that the jetstream wind pattern will continue to track any ash to the southeast towards mainland Europe and any increase in the explosive nature of the eruption could once again sharply reduce flight air space over Europe.